New rules make Arctic Winter Games team selection even tougher

The Yukon will not take a full roster of athletes to the Arctic Winter Games this year, falling short by about 45 spots according to the head of the team. 

Choosing which sports will take fewer athletes is a hard decision for Chef de Mission Trevor Twardochleb, who is having tough conversations with various sports organizations in the territory about the numbers. 

"We're limited to how many people we can bring, it's actually concerning for me because if you look at bringing a full contingent it's well over our threshold, which is 355 … and that includes athletes, support staff, mission staff," he said. 

The delegation will, however, include a higher ratio of adults this time — and it's not just Team Yukon.

Swapping some of the teams' allocated spots from athletes to adults has to do with implementing the Safe Sport policy, which was adopted by the Arctic Winter Games in 2020. That means following the rule of two, which says "any one-on-one interaction between an adult and a participant, both on and off of the field of play, must take place within earshot and view of a second adult." It also requires at least one of those two adults to be of the same gender as the athlete.  

The emphasis on Safe Sport follows an international push to protect athletes from abuse in all forms — sexual, mental and physical, and at all levels of competition.

The policy was in place during the 2023 Wood Buffalo games as well, but because the host community was able to accommodate more people, the games made an exception in allowing teams to bring additional members.

Now it's back to the usual cap of 2,000 participants overall — because that's the upper limit for Northern communities that host large events like the AWG, according to John Rodda,